Taking a closer look
The thwarted coup attempt of July 15, 2016 came out of nowhere. Although Turkey has a history of coups and memorandums, nevertheless, with the gradual awakening of right wing forces, the chances of any coup or revolt were diminishing day by day. The reasons were very simple; Erdoğan’s determination to serve the Turks, take them out of secular trap and fulfilling his ‘Vision 2023’. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the 12th President of Turkey. Merely in two decades he is at the helm of the affairs; starting his journey as the Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. Founded his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001 and led it to three general election victories in 2002, 2007 and 2011.During this period he remained the Prime Minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and stepped down only to become the president of Turkey, same year.
At least four times in Turkey’s history, the military had deposed incumbent leaders and took the reins in their hands. In 1960, 1980, 1993 and now a half cooked attempt in July 2016 the Turkish military (just a group) phased the coup d’état. The reason was military’s commitment to the secularist ideology of the iconic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk that has been the driving force behind these take-overs. However, previously the things were totally different as compared to today. While the military was sticking to its secular stance the religionist forces withdrew from their hard stance to the moderate one hence left no excuse for the army to poke its nose again and again in democratic affairs. Erdoğan was one of them who slowly but surely kept sweating for their vision and goals. Amazingly during his political career there was no military coup in Turkey, however an odd military memorandum was certainly there.
It is quite surprising when on the failure of a desperate group’s coup in Turkey; the political quarters here in Pakistan are jubilant and beating the drums; without realising the significant disparities between the political, economical and ethical segments of the two countries. Even a layman can pick the dissimilarity between the situation, the leadership, the armies and the two nations. To start with the leadership, let’s take Erdoğan first during whose accumulated time in chair as the PM and president, Turkish economy between 2002 thru 2012 caused a growth of 64% in real GDP and a 43% increase in GDP per capita but in our case if we look at the three tenures of PMLN and two reins of PPP we have nothing except to bow our heads in shame. Our IMF loan story is not some breaking news. We are frequently hearing about country’s being at the verge of bankruptcy and economy is news about doldrums. As compared to that Erdoğan inherited a debt of $23.5 billion to the IMF, which was reduced to $0.9 billion in 2012. As a leader with self respect and pain for his nation he decided not to sign a new deal. Turkey’s debt to the IMF was thus declared to be completely paid and he announced that the IMF could borrow from Turkey (Hope rulers are hearing me loud and clear). As I read somewhere that in 2010, five-year credit default swaps for Turkey’s sovereign debt were trading at a record low of 1.17%, below those of nine EU member countries and Russia.
As reported by the State Bank of Pakistan the foreign exchange reserves in Pakistan increased to 21348.90 USD Million in May this year while these reserves in Pakistan averaged 14621.71 USD Million from 1998 until 2016, with a record low of 1973.60 USD Million in December of 1999. As compared to that in 2002, the Turkish Central Bank had $26.5 billion in reserves. This amount reached $92.2 billion in 2011. During Erdoğan’s leadership, inflation fell from 32% to 9.0% in 2004. He put greater investments into the healthcare system than any of his predecessors. As part of the reforms, his government introduced the “Green Card” program, which provides free health benefits to the poor. Apart from that Erdoğan increased Education spending from 7.5 billion lira in 2002 to 34 billion lira in 2011, the highest share of the national budget given to any ministry and number of universities in Turkey nearly doubled, from 98 in 2002 to 186 in October 2012.
The currency exchange rate has another interesting story to tell. While Turkish Lira gained strength in last twenty years, the Pak rupee dreadfully stumbled against the US dollar during the same time. In 1996 one US dollar was equal to 222 Lira while in 2016, even after recent turmoil, it is equal to 2.94 Lira. Meanwhile, cheering Pakistan rupee had a value of 34 against a US dollar, only to pull his face down in 2016 when sadly it is 104.65 today.
Tayyip Erdoğan with utmost sincerity to his nation and loyalty to the country delivered the goods, so no wonder if on his short smart phone address, the Turkish people madly came out on the roads to support their beloved leader and showed the courage to counter coup. The revolting echelons suspended the CNN service, however; daring Turk president displayed a remarkable presence of mind and addressed the nation via a video calling service, appearing on the smart phone of a CNN Turk reporter who held it up to a studio camera. Let’s analyse honestly that do we have a leader of his match and caliber in the current and the past regimes?
If not then how come our ignorant leaders expect the public to come out in their support especially when they have a lot to explain and answer. While having Swiss accounts and palaces abroad, with foreign business ventures and offshore companies in Panama, what moral standing they had to congratulate a great nation and their great hero on the victory of democracy? It would certainly be unfortunate if they dare naming current shemozzle, plundering and fiasco as democracy. Our army is in no mood to step-in and throw Abdullah out, nevertheless, the political amateurs should also avoid involving army’s name once they are not visible even on horizon.
Erdoğan knew his people well and had faith in his service hence preferred to cancel his leave and flew back to Istanbul amidst scrambling rebel jet fighters. We have witnessed a similar situation in Pakistan back in 1999. What our leaders did? Turkey’s half cooked coup and Pakistan’s half cooked democracy have the same recipe and no wonder if the latter may have the same fate too.
Sohail Parwaz is a bilingual columnist, playwright and a media strategist. He has authored a predictive fiction titled ‘The Cornered Rogue.’ He can be followed at Twitter @penpricker